Filings Up 112 Percent From a Year Ago; Foreclosure Rate No. 3 in the Nation

IRVINE, Calif. – April 30, 2008 – Foreclosure filings were reported on 30,254 Florida properties in March, a 7 percent decline from the previous month, but still 112 percent ahead of the level reported for March 2007, according to the latest RealtyTrac® U.S. Foreclosure Market Report. One in every 282 Florida households received a foreclosure filing in March, the second highest state foreclosure rate in the nation.

RealtyTrac publishes the largest and most comprehensive national database of foreclosure and bank-owned properties, with over 1 million properties from nearly 2,500 counties across the country, and is the foreclosure data provider to MSN Real Estate, Yahoo! Real Estate and The Wall Street Journal’s Real Estate Journal.

“Despite the monthly decline in March, the level of foreclosure activity in Florida has ranked second highest in the nation for 14 consecutive months now,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “Unemployment in the state is below the national average. However, lower home sales volume and home price reductions continue to block distressed homeowners from having a viable exit strategy from foreclosure.”

The SunshineState documented less than half the foreclosure activity total of national leader California, which reported 64,711 properties with foreclosure filings for March. Ohio came in third highest, reporting 11,273 properties with foreclosure filings, followed closely by fourth place Georgia, which reported 11,047 properties with foreclosure filings. Texas rounded out the nation’s top five, reporting 10,700 properties with foreclosure filings. The remaining states in the nation’s top 10 for total foreclosure filings in March were Michigan, Arizona, Illinois, Nevada and Colorado.

Miami-Dade, Broward counties lead state in filings for March

Miami-DadeCounty led the state in total foreclosure activity for March, reporting 4,673 properties with foreclosure filings for the month. BrowardCounty came in second highest, reporting 3,941 properties with foreclosure filings for the month. LeeCounty was third, reporting 3,339 properties with foreclosure filings. Fourth highest total was documented in OrangeCounty, where 2,054 properties with foreclosure filings were reported. HillsboroughCounty came in fifth, reporting 1,736 properties with foreclosure filings for the month.

LeeCounty posts state’s top foreclosure rate for March

The highest county foreclosure rate in the state for March was reported in LeeCounty, where one in every 102 households received a foreclosure filing — 2.8 times the state average and 5.3 times the national average. OsceolaCounty posted the state’s second highest rate, with one in every 129 households receiving a foreclosure filing during the month — 2.2 times the state average and 4.2 times the national average. The third highest rate in the state was reported in BrowardCounty, where one in every 202 households received a foreclosure filing in March — 1.4 times the state average and 2.7 times the national average. Miami-DadeCounty had the fourth highest rate, with one in every 204 households receiving a foreclosure filing, followed by fifth place FlaglerCounty, where one in every 206 households received a foreclosure filing during the month.

State makes a major contribution to nation’s total in March

Total filings in Florida accounted for nearly 13 percent of the 234,685 properties with foreclosure filings reported nationwide in March. The national total represents a 5 percent increase from the previous month and is 57 percent ahead of the total reported for March 2007. One in every 538 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing during the month.

Report methodology

The RealtyTrac Monthly U.S. Foreclosure Market Report provides a count of the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing reported during the month — broken out by type of filing at the county, state and national level. RealtyTrac’s report incorporates documents filed in all three phases of foreclosure: Default— Notice of Default (NOD) and Lis Pendens (LIS); Auction— Notice of Trustee Sale and Notice of Foreclosure Sale (NTS and NFS); and Real Estate Owned, or REO properties (that have been foreclosed on and repurchased by a bank). If more than one foreclosure document is filed against a property during the month — which is extremely rare — only the most recent filing is counted in the report. The report also checks if the same type of document was filed against a property in a previous month. If so, and if that previous filing occurred within the estimated foreclosure timeframe for the state the property is in, the report does not count the property in the current month.

For current news and information regarding foreclosure-related issues and trends, check out our blog at www.ForeclosurePulse.com.

Ranked as the third largest real estate site by MediaMetrix, and No. 53 on Inc. magazine’s 2006 Inc. 500 list of the nation’s fastest growing private companies, RealtyTrac Inc. (www.realtytrac.com), is the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, providing all the resources that home seekers, investors and real estate agents need to locate, evaluate and buy properties below market value.

Founded in 1996, RealtyTrac publishes the largest and most comprehensive national database of pre-foreclosure, foreclosure, For Sale By Owner, resale and new homes, with more than 1.3 million properties across the country, property reports, productivity tools and extensive professional resources. RealtyTrac hosts nearly 3 million unique visitors monthly and has been chosen to supply foreclosure data to MSN Real Estate, Yahoo! Real Estate and the Wall Street Journal’s Real Estate Journal. For more information, visit (www.realtytrac.com).

About RealtyTrac

RealtyTrac® is the leading provider of comprehensive housing data and analytics for the real estate and financial services industries, Federal, state and local governments, academic institutions, and the media. Data is aggregated from parcel-level records of more than 125 million U.S. residential and commercial properties and delivered through customizable products including bulk file licensing, APIs and custom reports.